Death as a result of cardiac arrhythmia is an increasing concern in feedlots, especially in fast-growing livestock. Given that most feedlots operate on a slim profit margin, losses of livestock are devastating. Many treatments have been proposed, including supplementing feed with calcium or omega-3 fatty acids.
Distiller's grain by-products are the residual mash remaining after the starch has been extracted, converted to sugar and fermented into ethanol and carbon dioxide. Wet distiller's grain is a whole stillage product, with 10–20% solids. It consists of the entire solids and water left after the alcohol has been removed from the mash but is costly to transport and has a short shelf life. Dry distiller's grain (DDG) is typically prepared by drying wet distiller's grain.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,355,456 teaches an integrated process for fermenting grain to produce ethanol and then feeding the by-product of wet distiller's grain to livestock, among other steps. This reference also teaches feeding high saturation wet distiller's grain with solubles to eliminate acidosis in beef cattle, as well as for improving health and milk/meat quality of dairy cows and beef cattle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,177,008 teaches a method of producing glycerol as a co-product of ethanol fermentation.
Previously, distiller's grain has been fed to lactating dairy cattle, for example, in place of corn grain or soybean meal and was found to increase milk fat production (Al-Suwaiegh et al., 2002, J. Anim. Sci. 80: 1105–1111). It has also been reported that dried distillers grains are beneficial in some ruminant diets due to their high content of undegraded intake protein (UIP) (Peter et al., 2000, J. Anim. Sci. 78: 1–6). It was proposed that replacing corn in the diet of finishing sheep and cattle with distillers byproducts may help control subacute acidosis on the basis that high starch intake leads to increased production of ruminal organic acids, which in turn may cause reductions in gain and efficiency (Lodge et al., 1997, J. Anim. Sci. 75: 44–50). However, distiller's grain is known to be high in long-chain unsaturated fatty acids which, for example, increase the amounts of C18:0 and C18:1 in milk fat when fed to dairy cows (Schingoethe et al., 1999, J. Dairy Sci. 82: 574–580).